Shining light on the environment

照亮环境

• 批准号: ST/J000574/1
• 负责人: Mark Hodson
• 金额: $ 8.54万
• 依托单位: University of Reading
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Fellowship
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2011 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=ST%2FJ000574%2F1
• 关键词: Shining; light; environment

How can earthworms survive in metal-contaminated soil? How has ocean chemistry changed over the lifetime of the planet? Can we boost the nutritional value of food? How can we reduce the risks of arsenic in drinking water? How do radioactive pollutants behave in the environment? Scientists are using the biggest and most expensive scientific machine in the UK to help answer these and many other vitally important environmentally relevant questions.The machine is called Diamond and is the UKs national synchrotron facility. It is funded by the Wellcome trust and the UK government through the Science and Technology Facilities Council. Synchrotrons consist of particle accelerators (like a mini version of the Hadron collider in Switzerland) which fire electrons around a circle close to the speed of light. Every now and then the electrons are "tweaked" on their path and intense light is given off which is used by scientists to look at samples of soils, rocks, water and biological material at incredibly high levels of detail. Using this intense light we can look at how molecules and atoms are arranged and using this information we can help answer some of the questions posed above.Professor Mark Hodson from the University of Reading first used synchrotrons during his PhD research in 1992 when he was working out how magma chambers solidify under volcanoes. Since then he has moved down temperature to work on problems relating to contaminated land and earthworm biology but still uses synchrotrons. There aren't many synchrotrons around in the world and because they are so expensive to build and run it is important to use them 24 hours a day. Also, despite the high level of technology involved in synchrotrons there are many "low-fi" fixes that become necessary such as holding samples in front of a beam of intense X-rays with sticky tape or blue tac. For this reason Mark, like most synchrotron users, has as many memories and experiences of trying to find a vending machine that still has chocolate in it at 3 a.m. in the morning after being up for 48 hours as he has about the scientific breakthroughs that have occurred!Over the course of this fellowship Mark will be involved in a variety of activities. You might come across him talking at a science festival or science discussion meeting near you. Alternatively you might come across him talking to your class at school or, if you are lucky, your school might visit him at Diamond to actually see the machine he is talking about. As well as explaining how synchrotrons work he will be discussing how scientists are using synchrotrons to answer a wealth of questions relevant to climate change and the health of people and the planet. Both in his talks and also on his blog you'll also be able to hear about what it is like to be a user of synchrotrons, from the starting point of any scientific enquiry - making an observation or asking a question - to carrying out experiments, applying for beamtime at a synchrotron and then staying up for 3 days 24 7 to run samples and get some crucial answers to boost your understanding of the system that you're investigating. On the web site you'll also find a host of resources linking in to the use of synchrotrons in environmental science.You may already have read about Mark's research in the newspapers (try googling "Metal munching earthworms!), have heard him on Radio 4 or seen him in documentaries about earthworm evolution and crop circles (and no, there's nothing in the soil that suggests crop circles are made by extra-terrestrials!) but over the course of the fellowship you should be able to hear more about his, and others, research, as he spends more time with the media, letting them know about the amazing environmental science being done at Diamond.

蚯蚓如何在金属污染的土壤中生存？在地球的一生中，海洋化学发生了怎样的变化？我们可以提高食物的营养价值吗？如何降低饮用水中砷的风险？放射性污染物在环境中的表现如何？科学家们正在使用英国最大、最昂贵的科学机器来帮助回答这些以及许多其他至关重要的环境相关问题。这台机器被称为“钻石”，是英国的国家同步加速器设施。它由威康信托基金和英国政府通过科学技术设施委员会资助。同步加速器由粒子加速器（如瑞士强子对撞机的迷你版）组成，以接近光速的速度围绕一圈发射电子。电子时不时地在其路径上进行“调整”，并发出强光，科学家利用这些光以令人难以置信的高细节水平观察土壤、岩石、水和生物材料的样本。利用这种强光，我们可以观察分子和原子的排列方式，利用这些信息，我们可以帮助回答上面提出的一些问题。雷丁大学的马克·霍德森教授在 1992 年的博士研究期间首次使用了同步加速器，当时他正在工作了解火山下岩浆室如何凝固。从那时起，他降低了温度来研究与污染土地和蚯蚓生物学有关的问题，但仍然使用同步加速器。世界上同步加速器的数量并不多，而且由于它们的建造和运行成本非常昂贵，因此每天 24 小时使用它们非常重要。此外，尽管同步加速器涉及高水平的技术，但仍有许多必要的“低保真度”修复，例如用胶带或蓝色 TAC 将样本固定在强 X 射线束前。因此，马克和大多数同步加速器用户一样，对于在熬夜 48 小时后在凌晨 3 点试图找到一台仍然有巧克力的自动售货机的记忆和经历，与他对科学突破的记忆和经历一样多。发生了！在这次团契期间，马克将参与各种活动。您可能会在您附近的科学节或科学讨论会上遇到他讲话。或者，您可能会在学校遇到他在课堂上与您交谈，或者，如果幸运的话，您的学校可能会在戴蒙德拜访他，实际看到他正在谈论的机器。除了解释同步加速器的工作原理外，他还将讨论科学家如何使用同步加速器来回答与气候变化以及人类和地球健康相关的大量问题。在他的演讲和博客中，您还可以了解同步加速器用户的感受，从任何科学探究的起点（进行观察或提出问题）到进行实验，在同步加速器上申请波束时间，然后连续 3 天 24 7 熬夜运行样本并获得一些关键答案，以加深您对正在研究的系统的理解。在该网站上，您还可以找到大量与环境科学中同步加速器的使用相关的资源。您可能已经在报纸上读到过马克的研究（尝试用谷歌搜索“咀嚼金属的蚯蚓！”），在广播中听到过他的声音。 4 或者在有关蚯蚓进化和麦田圈的纪录片中见过他（不，土壤中没有任何东西表明麦田圈是外星人造成的！）但在奖学金的过程中，你应该能够听到更多关于他和其他人的研究，因为他花更多的时间与媒体接触，让他们了解戴蒙德正在进行的令人惊叹的环境科学研究。